By IANS,
Dubai : A five-year-old Indian boy, who was stranded in Qatar for two years for overstaying, has finally been able to return to his home in Kerala after authorities in that Gulf nation removed the fines that applied to him and levied these on his father.
Afju Ajmal, who had approached the Indian embassy more than a month back for help so that he could go back to India, is now back with his mother at Varkala in Kerala’s Thiruvananthapuram district, the Peninsula newspaper reported.
“The authorities waived the boy’s fine for overstay and instead levied it on his father,” the report quoted one of the boy’s relatives as saying.
Afju was brought to Qatar, along with his mother Subeida, on a visit visa in 2006 by his father Ajmal Ajumon, who worked as a driver in a local company.
His mother was then sent back to their home in Kerala towards the end of 2006 after she became pregnant. She later gave birth to a daughter.
The father had paid a huge amount as fine for his wife’s overstaying in the country. The boy too attracted a huge amount as fine for illegally overstaying.
The case came to light when the boy, brought to the embassy by a relative, told officials that his father did not have enough money to pay the fine.
Ajumon himself had been in jail for a visa-related case filed against him by a person he had brought to Qatar.
Now, after the authorities intervened and levied the fines on his father, Afju left for India last week.
“He went back to India Thursday night (Oct 16) and reached home the next day,” the relative told the newspaper.